UPDATE: Firefighters use hand tools to fight Chattanooga-area wildfires with no rain in sight
Wildfires ravage Southeast
- Two juveniles arrested, charged in deadly Gatlinburg wildfires
- Tennessee takes four area counties off burn ban list to aid tornado cleanup
- Rain helps with area wildfires, but Tennessee burn ban remains [videos, photos]
- Gatlinburg wildfires death toll climbs to 14; officials estimate 1,684 structures damaged or destroyed
- Nonprofits and state agencies step up relief efforts amid tornado, wildfire damage
- Man charged for allegedly intentionally setting a Sequatchie County wildfire
- Rain brings relief for wildfires
- Southern storms should ease drought, but fire threat remains
- At long last, substantial rain is expected throughout Chattanooga area
- Gov. Bill Haslam applauds wildfire fighters' efforts
- Firefighters make progress in Southeast wildfires, but threat remains
- Crews fighting large fire in northeast Alabama
- Gov. Haslam vows to pursue wildfire arsonists 'with everything we have'
- Hamilton County wildfires to cost more than $600,000
- Forestry crews prepared to miss Thanksgiving with families as they battle wildfires
- Wildfires rage on; new one pops up in North Georgia
- Gasp! Wildfires cause hacking and wheezing across the South
- Air quality improves, rain possible this weekend
- Relentless smoke spreads fear at edge of southern wildfires
- Catoosa County issues burn ban
- Many outdoor activities banned as fires burn across south
- Two men charged with arson as crews make progress quelling 3 area blazes
- Chattanooga is on target to break record for driest year in city's history
- Alabama man confesses to starting Sequatchie County fire
- Area wildfires containment increases, Flipper Bend fire 95 percent contained
- Catholic Mass offered for wildfire relief
- Fire crews hope to reach 100 percent containment on 3 area wildfires
- Wildfire smoke engulfs Chattanooga, endangering health of residents
- No rain in forecast as Chattanooga area wildfires continue to burn
- Tennessee Gov. Haslam issues 51-county burning ban
- Firefighters use hand tools to fight Chattanooga-area wildfires with no rain in sight
- Hundreds hospitalized with breathing problems amid Chattanooga-area wildfire outbreak
- Sohn: Might wildfire smoke be harbinger of days to come?
- New fires sprout in Chattanooga area as firefighters work to contain thousands of acres burning across region
- Arson suspected in most Chattanooga area wildfires
- UPDATE: Man arrested after admitting he set three wildfires that consumed 300 acres
- The latest update on the unprecedented fire season in the tri-state area
- Wildfires burning total of 9,680 acres across eastern half of Tennessee; FEMA steps in to offer aid [videos, photo galleries]
- Southern fires rage with 41.6 million now living in drought
- Wildfires continue across region with no rain imminent; some residents evacuated
- Chattanooga area wildfire smoke triggers 'Code Red' air quality alert [videos]
Crews battling stubborn local wildfires reported mixed results Saturday as responders inched toward containing fires at Flipper Bend and Mowbray Mountain even as another blaze began.
On Saturday afternoon Julie Allen, a spokeswoman for the Florida Forestry Service, which has taken over leadership on several fires in the area, said the Flipper Bend fire had reached 80 percent containment at 1,000 acres burned.
Residents who had been told to evacuate on Walden's Ridge as a precaution last week were able to return to their homes as firefighters worked to build further break lines that could entirely cut off the fire.
There were also signs of progress on Mowbray Mountain, where the 526-acre fire was 50 percent contained with dozens of men and women working on it.
But while an end might be in sight for those fires, Allen said attention now is on a new fire right between the two, near Poe Road.
Like many of the other blazes, steep terrain has made the Poe Road fire extraordinarily difficult to fight. As of Saturday evening it had engulfed 90 acres and was only 5 percent contained, although no structures are endangered.
"That one is our concern right now. We're going to get out there and put some heavy work on it," Allen said.
Another brush fire near White Oak Mountain has also harassed drivers in the southbound lanes of Interstate 75, at times slowing traffic at mile marker 16. The obstruction was expected to be cleared by the end of Saturday, according to information from the Tennessee Department of Transportation website.
As of Saturday more than 1,000 acres were ablaze all told in Marion, Sequatchie, Hamilton, Bradley and Polk counties. More than 800 acres were on fire in North Alabama and North Georgia, not including the 10,000-plus-acre Rough Ridge fire in the Cohutta National Wilderness.
Complicating responders' efforts across the region is an apparent string of arsons that have added to the already record number of blazes.
On Friday, a 21-year-old man was arrested on charges of setting three fires on Smith Mountain in Sequatchie County and in Clayton, Ga. Police are looking for a dark blue SUV seen in the area where a 2,000-acre fire started Wednesday.
A burn ban is in effect for nine Tennessee counties and a violation of that ban, punishable as a Class A misdemeanor, can carry a fine of $2,500 and/or up to 11 months and 29 days in jail.
The counties under a burn ban are Clairborne, Cumberland, Hamilton, Jefferson, Loudon, Marion, Monroe, Robertson and Sevier Counties.
